Boxford's Kreider still learning the ropes in return to NHL hockey

Chris Kreider can certainly take pride in being the only former Masconomet High School player in the National Hockey League record book.

Joshua Boyd/Wicked Local Boxford

Chris Kreider can certainly take pride in being the only former Masconomet High School player in the National Hockey League record book.

“Every day, every day,” he said, when asked if he stops to think about the last six years’ journey from the Red and White of the Chieftains to the Red, White and Blue of the New York Rangers. “I’m very thankful that I’ve gotten the opportunity to play at this level so far.”

The Boxford native’s five goals and seven points for the Rangers last spring were both NHL records in the category of rookies in the playoffs that had not played any regular season games. Maybe we can call that the “Ken Dryden Club.”

His momentum from those 18 playoff games after he ended his Boston College career (with two national championship rings to boot) was interrupted, however.

On Sept. 15, 2012, NHL owners locked out the players following the expiration of the last Collective Bargaining Agreement.

While the owners and their commissioner Gary Bettman and the players and their executive director Donald Fehr did battle for nearly four months, NHL rinks lay silent. It was the league’s third work stoppage and it threatened to lead to the league’s second canceled season.

However, on Jan. 13, the players and owners had finally agreed to not go down that road and NHL hockey was back. Six days later, Kreider found himself back in with the Rangers in a very familiar place.

Kreider was already familiar with the TD Garden ice in Boston. There, with the Boston College Eagles, he’d won three straight Hockey East Championships and three straight Beanpots. Away from Garden ice, he also helped BC to the 2010 and 2012 National Championships.

“When you’re in college, you’re always getting butterflies when you come here, so it was pretty much the same feeling,” said Kreider, following his first-ever NHL regular season game on Jan. 19.

Was he happy about this milestone? Not around 10 p.m. that night. His former favorite hockey team, the Boston Bruins, beat his Rangers by a 3-1 score.

“I was definitely excited to come back to Boston for my first regular season game, but yeah, it would’ve been a lot better to win,” said Kreider.

He was out there for 16 shifts totaling 10:13 of ice time. He had one shot attempt blocked, another missed the net. He served a bench minor penalty for too many men on the ice, visiting the Garden’s penalty box (“I’ve been there probably too many times,” he quipped.)

He also was credited with his first NHL hit (i.e., “intentional contact by a player on a puck carrier that causes the carrier to lose possession of the puck” from the NHL rulebook).

Standing 6-feet-3-inches and weighing in at 226 pounds, Kreider will need to stay steady with that stat if he hopes to avoid a reassignment to the Rangers’ minor league team in Hartford, the Connecticut Whale.

“If you don’t finish checks, you don’t play at this level,” he said.

Against Pittsburgh in a 6-3 loss on Jan. 20, he did have another hit. He also blocked two shots and had a shot on goal of his own, but was a minus-2 (defensive rating). The Rangers were back against the Bruins on their home Madison Square Garden ice on Jan. 23, after the Transcript’s press time.

Team captain Ryan Callahan believes in the Rangers’ rookie, which Callahan was himself just five short years ago.

“He’s going to be good for us, he’s such a big guy, and you can see in the playoffs how good he was,” said Callahan, of Kreider. “We’re excited for what he can bring.

“He’s still a rookie, he’s still learning and it’s hard to come back especially where he played college, too, it’s a lot of nerves,” Callahan added.

Boston, to Kreider, is just a stop on the schedule nowadays. He is a Ranger that bleeds Red, White and Blue.

“Your allegiances change pretty quickly when you’re drafted by that team,” he said. “It’s a team that takes a chance on you and a team that clearly has faith in you. It’s, I think I said last year, easy to fall in love with this group to begin with.”

Regardless, reminders of his Boston years will be with him throughout the season – he is a teammate of – and at least temporarily a linemate of – former BC Eagle Brian Boyle. Both Kreider and Boyle were guided through their college careers by the most successful coach in college hockey history, Jerry York.

“There are some things that [Boyle] does that you shake your head and say, ‘yeah, that’s something he probably picked up at BC,’” said Kreider. “But it makes it kind of easier to talk to him and approach him. He’s a pretty personable guy to begin with, but [it] definitely makes it easier.”

Nothing will be easy about 48 games in 96 days, but Kreider’s willing to put in the work to help the Rangers return to the playoffs.

“I’m excited,” he said. “I’m sure it’ll wear on me over time because I’m not used to it, but … [keep] fresh as best you can.”